Ocado partners with Beano to launch a revolutionary cookbook aimed at reducing food waste.
- Ben Fogle collaborates on recipes inspired by classic comic characters.
- The cookbook will be available in print and online, featuring innovative dishes.
- Research reveals a lack of food waste awareness among families.
- Supermarket changes help households better utilise groceries.
Ocado has joined forces with Beano to unveil a groundbreaking cookbook, the first of its kind for the comic. This initiative is designed to address food waste in households by providing creative recipe solutions. Collaborating with adventurer Ben Fogle, the cookbook introduces inventive takes on beloved comic characters through family-friendly recipes. The dishes, including Nearly Gone-offee Pie, Bangers and Gnash, and Jammy Dodger French Toast, aim to extend the usability of everyday foods like bananas and bread.
Ben Fogle expressed his enthusiasm for being ‘Beano-fied’, contributing to the cookbook, and engaging in dialogues with his children on maximising fresh ingredients. The cookbook will be accessible both in print and digitally from 27 September, via Ocado Life’s October edition, furthering the initiative to creatively utilise commonly wasted household foods.
In conjunction with the cookbook, Ocado and Beano have developed educational programmes for primary school pupils, focusing on Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. This educational outreach seeks to better inform children about cooking and food consumption. The effort comes as Ocado’s research shows a significant knowledge gap, with 56% of parents never discussing food waste with their children, though 37% of children express a desire to cook more at home.
Despite this knowledge deficit, there is a positive trend, with 66% of parents acknowledging their children possess greater environmental awareness than they did at a similar age. Such awareness aligns with recent supermarket practices, like removing ‘best before’ dates from fresh products, a change that has aided 25% of households in optimising grocery usage.
Rachel Cox-Reynolds, Director of Sustainability at Ocado Retail, emphasised the company’s commitment to extending the life of fresh produce, stating, ‘Helping families make their food go further is a big priority for us’. Consumer research has identified Ocado-delivered groceries as having the longest average time before reaching ‘use-by’ dates, reinforcing the company’s focus on sustainability.
The collaboration between Ocado and Beano presents a promising venture to tackle food waste through innovative cooking and educational endeavours.
